Pennsylvanians to the Defense of Our Borders!

Posted on Mon, Mar. 27, 2006
Border worries reach from Mexico to Phila.
Local group joins illegal-immigrant watch.
By Gaiutra Bahadur
Inquirer Staff Writer

John Ryan is, as the slogan on his olive green T-shirt announces, an "undocumented U.S. Border Patrol agent."

No one deputized the retired Quakertown telephone repairman to stare into the hardscrabble desert between Mexico and the United States, protecting the U.S. border from the estimated million people who cross it illegally each year.

Yet today, as the Senate begins debate on sweeping changes to the nation's immigration laws, Ryan is planning an April trip to Yuma, Ariz., where, 9mm pistol at his side, he will be a lookout for undocumented immigrants.

Ryan, desert sentry at 58, founded the Pennsylvania Minutemen last summer. The presence of the group here, almost 2,000 miles from Mexico, reflects the growing influence of the Minuteman movement.

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Thirty-one official chapters in 24 states, including central New Jersey, have sprouted in the last year. Some focus on confronting day laborers they believe are illegal and contractors who hire them. Chapter members also lobby for tougher immigration enforcement.

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Ryan also polices his Minutemen, he said. He banned a member of the group's Yahoo listserv for anti-Semitic posts.

The Minutemen group "doubtless contains some well-meaning people," said Mark Potok, a director at the Southern Poverty Law Center. "However, it embodies a lot of what's scary about the [border-control] movement: a mix of weapons, bigotry and conspiracy theories."

TrekMedic notes: SPLC report on 2005 Minuteman Project here.

Many Minutemen supporters say they believe illegal Mexican immigrants come here as part of reconquista, a scheme by their government and others to take back the American Southwest.

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The Pennsylvania Minutemen do not perform background checks. He plans to let the state do the legwork by having members apply for concealed-weapons permits, which are unavailable to convicted criminals.

In Yuma, Ryan will not be on Simcox's list of official Minuteman Civil Defense Corps border-watchers. Yet Simcox backs the Pennsylvania Minutemen.

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At the King of Prussia meeting, former Chester County Commissioner Colin Hanna told the Minutemen that ranchers on the Mexican border have found copies of the Koran and Arabic-to-Spanish crib sheets intended to help Middle Easterners pass as Mexican.

Contact staff writer Gaiutra Bahadur at 215-854-2601 or bahadug@phillynews.com.


TrekMedic addendum: All relevent links were added by yours truly!